Wellington's Rifles

The Origins, Development, and Battles of the Rifle Regiments in the Peninsular War and at Waterloo

By: Ray Cusick

Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies

Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

Until now there has not been a serious study of the rifle-armed regiments of the British Army that earned such renown in the Peninsular and Waterloo campaigns. Compiled by a former rifleman, Ray Cusick, who has written extensively on the subject, Wellington's Rifles examines the new rifle regiments, how they came about, their development and their actions. The author also investigates the introduction of rifled muskets into the British Army in the French and Indian wars of the 18th century, where they were shunned by the military establishment, to their transition into a key element in Wellington's extraordinarily successful Peninsular army. The training and tactics of the riflemen are explained and each significant engagement in which they were involved is explored in thrilling detail. It was the riflemen of the 95th Regiment that inspired the series of Sharpe books and films. That was the fiction; this is the reality. The publication will be introduced by the renowned Napoleonic historian Ian Fletcher.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2013 The Estate of Raymond P. Cusick, first North American edition by Carrel Books, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., 2015 (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Outstanding work!!!!

Outstanding work! Particularly the story of the development of light infantry skirmishers before the Peninsular campaign. The light infantry changed the nature of linear battle in the second half of the gunpowder age.

A list of facts that help explain development

Would you listen to Wellington's Rifles again? Why?

Maybe later, it was interesting, and it put in order some of the facts of the wars and its players

What other book might you compare Wellington's Rifles to and why?

This book touches on stories in many other books but in a factual way to explain how and why it came about.

Have you listened to any of Matthew Lloyd Davies’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Mr. Davies is a professional and I enjoyed his performance

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The book title is good

Any additional comments?

Enjoyed the order of the history, it was alot of info that was fact not fiction, so it was alittle dry in some places but overall it was great

What could have been

Given this work was published posthumously, it's hard to give a true assessment of this book. There are significant gaps, for example none of the history between Fuentes de Onoro and Waterloo is covered. Despite the title, we only enter the Peninsular war in the last quarter of the book. Many pieces of information are repeated multiple times; in fact the book reads more like a collection of articles rather than a coherent work. What's left however is fascinating and informative, and highly accessible. You can see glimpses of a great work that will sadly now never come to light.

Mr Davies voice is pleasant and clear, but the narration is marred by his diction. This work is read, not narrated, and almost every sentence is treated as standing alone, with noticeable pauses in between. This got more annoying the further I got in, and it is a testament to the quality of Mr Cusick's writing and the material that I nearly (but not quite) forgot this over the final chapters of the book. Of course, YMMV.

Overall, this was worth the credit I spent on it, but it could have been so much more.